Round 10 Elimination Match: Alex Vansant VS Ray Abhimanu

September 2nd, 2012

“If I lose this, this is my tenth bubble Match loss in a row,” laughed Vansant. “Rage!” Both of these competitors are 7-2 in this tournament, and in this final round of Swiss, it’s win or go home! Ray Abhimanu is playing Wind-Ups and Vansant is running Machina Gadgets with Gear Gigant X.

Vansant opened the Match with a hand of two MachinaGearframe; MonsterReborn; two Green Gadget; and Tragoedia. He Summoned Gearframe and used its effect to search his Deck for MachinaFortress. “I don’t know what you’re playing,” reflected Vansant. He took a moment to ponder the situation, then ended, having no real plays to make.

Abhimanu Normal Summoned Wind-Up Magician, then Special Summoned Wind-Up Shark. He Special Summoned another Magician with the effect of the first, then raised the Shark’s Level to 5 to trigger the effect of the second Magician: that got him another Shark from his Deck, which he also made Level 5. He stacked the Sharks to Xyz Summon Tiras, Keeper of Genesis, then stacked the Magicians for Maestroke the Symphony Djinn. Tiras attacked to destroy Gearframe, dealing 600 Battle Damage, and Maestroke made a direct attack. Abhimanu detached a Material from Tiras, then Set a Spell or Trap.

Vansant drew TorrentialTribute. He Summoned MachinaGearframe to get another Fortress, then discarded GreenGadget and the Fortress to Special Summon it. He ditched another GreenGadget and the second Fortress to Special Summon that, then tried to Xyz Summon Number 11: Big Eye: Abhimanu negated the Summon with a huge SolemnJudgment! Vansant had used four cards to try for what would have been a back breaking Big Eye, but lost them all to one Trap Card. Still, he pressed on: he used MonsterReborn to Special Summon GreenGadget, getting RedGadget from his Deck with Green’s effect. He stacked Green Gadget and Gearframe and deliberated between Xyz Summoning Maestroke the Symphony Djinn or Fairy King Albverdich, settling on Maestroke to turn Tiras face-down. It attacked Tiras to destroy it, and Vansant Set TorrentialTribute.

Abhimanu Normal Summoned Wind-Up Rat, and Vansant flipped TorrentialTribute: both Duelists detached to keep their Maestrokes on the field, but Abhimanu attacked with his to destroy Vansant’s.

Vansant drew another TorrentialTribute, and Summoned RedGadget to get YellowGadget from his Deck. He Set Torrential.

Abhimanu activated PotofAvarice, sending two Wind-Up Magician; two Wind-Up Shark; and Tiras back to his Deck to draw two cards. He followed up with HeavyStorm, then Normal Summoned Wind-Up Rat to Special Summon the first Rat from his Graveyard. He stacked them to Xyz Summon Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity, and used its ability to Special Summon Wind-Up Hunter! He gave up Zenmaity to make Vansant drop YellowGadget, then attacked to wipe Vansant’s field. Vansant had one card left in hand: Tragoedia, which he Special Summoned. Abhimanu Set a back row card. Vansant drew and Set a card to his back row. Abhimanu pressed with a Wind-Up Rabbit next turn and the first Duel was over!

Ray Abhimanu takes total command of the first Duel with a back-breaking SolemnJudgment, and coasts onward to victory! One more win like that would see Abhimanu take a seat in the Top 32.

Vansant opened Duel 2 with a hand of two Red Gadgets; Pot of Avarice; MachinaFortress; Maxx “C”; and Tragoedia. He Summoned RedGadget to get YellowGadget from his Deck.

Abhimanu Set two cards to his backrow and Summoned Wind-Up Rabbit.

Vansant drew SolemnWarning and Summoned YellowGadget, getting GreenGadget from his Deck. He stacked his Gadgets to try and Xyz Summon Gear Gigant X, but Abhimanu shut him down with SolemnWarning. Vansant Set his own Warning and ended.

Abhimanu attacked with Wind-Up Rabbit, and Vansant Special Summoned Tragoedia. Abhimanu Set two cards to his back row.

Vansant drew RivalryofWarlords and turned Trageodia to attack into DimensionalPrison. Vansant Summoned GreenGadget in Main Phase 2 to get RedGadget from his Deck, then Set Rivalry.

Abhimanu Set a monster.

Vansant drew MonsterReborn and Summoned RedGadget, getting Yellow from his Deck. He stacked them to Xyz Summon Gear Gigant X, but when he used its effect Abhimanu Chained EffectVeiler’s ability to keep Vansant from searching. Vansant pitched YellowGadget and MachinaFortress to Special Summon the Fortress, then shuffled back everything else in his Graveyard for PotofAvarice. That got him StarlightRoad and TorrentialTribute. Fortress attacked Rabbit; Abhimanu banished it to dodge; and Fortress attacked Abhimanu’s Set SnowmanEater. Its effect destroyed Gigant X. Vansant Set Torrential and Starlight to end.

Abhimanu brought back his Rabbit and Set a third card to his back row.

Vansant drew BookofMoon and Summoned RedGadget. Abhimanu flipped TorrentialTribute; Vansant Chained StarlightRoad; but Abhimanu had that SolemnJudgment yet again! The field was wiped, but Abhimanu lost his Rabbit in the process. Vansant pressed on, bringing back MachinaFortress with MonsterReborn: it attacked into DimensionalPrison, and Vansant saved it with BookofMoon. Abhimanu was down to one card in hand.

He drew to two cards, and Normal Summoned Wind-Up Rat to reveal Wind-Up Shark: Vansant Chained Maxx “C”, and drew a card with its effect when the Shark was Special Summoned. Abhimanu knocked Shark down to Level 3, then tried to Xyz Summon Zenmaines, but Vansant’s SolemnWarning gave Abhimanu ample reason to shuffle up for Duel 3.

Alex Vansant finally manages to draw some Trap Cards, and fights back to win the second Duel as a result. We were headed to Duel 3.

Vansant had YellowGadget; two MachinaGearframe; HeavyStorm; BookofMoon; and SolemnJudgment. That Thunder King was locking down three of his cards, so Vansant turned it down with BookofMoon so he could grab MachinaFortress with MachinaGearframe. He discarded YellowGadget and Fortress to Special Summon Fortress, then attacked with Gearframe to destroy Thunder King. Fortress made a direct attack, and Abhimanu didn’t have Gorz the Emissary of Darkness! Vansant strapped Gearframe to Fortress as a Union Monster, Set Judgment, and ended.

Abhimanu Summoned Tour Guide from the Underworld and Special Summoned Sangan. He stacked them for Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity, then used its effect to Special Summon Wind-Up Magician. He Special Summoned Wind-Up Shark from his hand, then Special Summoned another Magician from his Deck. Changing Shark to Level 5 let Abhimanu Special Summon another Shark, and he changed it to Level 5 for Tiras, Keeper of Genesis: Vansant negated the Summon with SolemnJudgment. Abhimanu Set a Spell or Trap, then Xyz Summoned Maestroke the Symphony Djinn to turn Fortress face-down. That triggered Fortress’ effect, revealing Abhimanu’s hand: SpiritReaper; Wind-Up Hunter; and Wind-Up Rat. Vansant decided to send Wind-Up Rat to the Graveyard. Maestroke attacked to destroy Fortress, and its effect targeted Abhimanu’s Maestroke: Vansant detached to keep Maestroke on the field.

Vansant drew StarlightRoad and activated HeavyStorm, destroying Abhimanu’s BottomlessTrapHole. He Summoned MachinaGearframe to get MachinaCannon from his Deck, and discarded it to Special Summon back Fortress. Gearframe attacked to destroy Zenmaity, and Fortress attacked over Maestroke. Vansant Set Starlight, his last card.

Abhimanu activated SystemDown! He dropped to 3800 Life Points to banish all of Vansant’s Machine-Types from the field and Graveyard! He Set a monster.

Vansant drew another Gearframe! He Summoned it to get MachinaFortress from his Deck, and attacked to flip Abhimanu’s face-down SpiritReaper.

Abhimanu Set another monster.

Vansant drew CalloftheHaunted. He Set it and didn’t attack.

Abhimanu Flip Summoned SnowmanEater, then Normal Summoned Wind-Up Rat to Special Summon another Rat from his Graveyard. He stacked Rat and Snowman for Wind-Up Zenmaines, then attacked directly with SpiritReaper to make Vansant discard his Fortress. Zenmaines then made a direct attack. Less than two minutes remained in the round, and the Duel stood at 2200 Life Points to 3800, with Abhimanu leading. He stacked SpiritReaper and Rat as time was called, Xyz Summoning a second Wind-Up Zenmaines. Five turns remained in the Duel.

Vansant drew CompulsoryEvacuationDevice. He had three turns including this one to even up the score. “This is one of those awkward moments where I wish I played a card that I don’t, that I’d considered, but decided not to run for this tournament…” He Set the Compulsory.

Abhimanu turned his Zenmaines to Attack Position – both of them – and tried to attack, but Vansant flipped Call of the Haunted to bring back Fortress. Abhimanu ended his Battle Phase, but activated DarkHole in Main Phase 2! His Zenmaines’ effects would threaten to destroy all of Vansant’s remaining cards, but Vansant had that Compulsory face-down. He had to decide how and when to use it, and decided not to do so quite yet. Abhimanu detached a Material from each of his Xyz Monsters to keep them on the field. In the End Phase, Abhimanu targeted Compulsory Evacuation Device for the effect of his first Zenmaines, and Vansant bounced away the other one on the Chain!

Vansant drew Maxx “C” – no help there. He Set it. His other remaining card was that Set StarlightRoad. Abhimanu drew MindControl next turn to win the Match!